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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Two Unusual Glitters

Today's entry is an overdue thank you to mrsrexy, ask the Canadian Nail Fanatic. We've swapped several times, so when a package arrived from her out of the blue one day some weeks ago, I thought perhaps I'd somehow forgotten we were doing another swap. But no, when I opened it, there was a sweet note from her and lots of polishes I can't get here that she knew I'd like—she'd seen them and just bought them and sent them to me! I was so touched. A bit after that, we did do a swap, in which she sent me a bunch of things from Icing (which doesn't seem to want to put stores in any of the places I shop regularly, and heaven knows I do shop regularly). One of the beauties she got me was Icing After Party, a very interesting glitter with shreds of color in it rather than uniform glitter bits. The color scheme of this one is different than anything else in my collection: mostly lilac, teal, and orange with highlights of gold and silver.

When deciding what to use as a base for After Party, I noticed two colors in my recent acquisitions that looked like they'd coordinate well: Sinful Pandora and Confetti To Teal to Handle (yeah, they used to instead of too). Both of those are shimmers. I used two coats of Pandora on most of my fingers, then put two of To Teal to Handle on my ring finger as an accent, and followed with two Coats of After Party.

I like this combination—it has a sort of American Southwest feel to it. I do want to try After Party over purple; I think that would look great.

I also tried a couple of the surprises mrsrexy sent, both of which are things I likely would have picked up for myself if I'd ever seen them anywhere: F.A.W.N. 085, an olive-y green creme, and Naturistics Super Shine Ice Crystals, a glitter dominated by holographic diamond shapes.

The green surprised me by being quite jelly-esque and squishy; I used three coats plus top coat.

I didn't want to waste the glitter since I don't have any others of that shape, so I just did thumb and ring finger accents with it.

I wish I'd managed to get some pictures of the glitter showing off its holographic color shift; it's quite eye catching. You might have noticed there was some bubbling going on in between the glitter bits—I decided I needed to thin the glitter after doing a test swatch and am pretty sure I didn't give it enough time to settle after I shook it to mix in the thinner. That or it doesn't get along with my trusty Sally Hansen top coat. I know I'll be trying this glitter again so maybe I'll do a topcoat test at the same time.